Thursday, January 27, 2011

Biker Revisited

I needed a "people" image for my camera club competition this week and thought this would be good. I also needed a monochrome version, so converted it. The front of the bike was dark, so I duplicated the layer and changed its mode to lighten and masked off the background and the rider. I didn't want to lighten them. Then I thought, something special would be cool, so I added the background texture. It really made the image "pop", almost 3D like when I compared different versions in Photoshop. A little more dodging & burning and I have an image that I really like.

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UPDATE: I took a first place with the image at the camera club tonight! Now it goes to the regional competition!
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Shot with Pentax K-7, kit lens at 21mm in manual mode. Overhead light via Yongnuo YN460 II Flash with RF-602 trigger inside a Westcott Apollo softbox.

Mouse over to see the original version of this image. (Mouse over tutorial at right.)



Visit Before & After at PixelPerfectBlog for more photos of photo edits!

Visit The Weekend in Black & White for more monochrome photos!

11 comments:

R and J Studios said...

totally dig it! while id love to see a "normal" edit and keep the flag in color...the b&w conversion is really nice

Angel Rogers said...

Nice! The b/w and the spotlight effect really made this so so picture into a really interesting one. Great effort!

Excellent Parent said...

great pic

Unknown said...

love the grunge texture!

Firefly the Travel Guy said...

Striking photo. I love the "photo bomb" of the couple posing along in the background.

Mommy2Four said...

You rocked this edit! Love it!

Laura said...

interesting photo...love his expression!

Dragonstar said...

Your hard work payed off. Congratulations on your win, and good luck as it goes regional.

Unknown said...

Gorgeous Perry, you are right the texture really add to this image.

Lachezar said...

Great work indeed!
I think you achieved a great result while keeping true to the original mood and atmosphere!

Eng said...

love the black and white conversion with the texture and how the light shines on the biker...